Category Archives: The Elder Scrolls

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The internet is a wonderful and creative oasis (when looking in the right places). We are feeling inspired by all the artwork we’ve seen or that’s been shared with us and decided to post it to share with everyone! Thank you to all the imaginative minds that designed the illustrations below.

Every year Classic FM hosts the largest poll for fans of classical music. For the last two years, Jeremy Soule has worked his way up the list making a tremendous jump from being ranked #238 on 2012’s Hall of Fame to #5 on the 2013 Hall of Fame!

If you’re a fan of The Elder Scrolls (or just beautiful music), lend your support and vote for Jeremy Soule on Classic FM’s Hall of Fame 2014. For those of you who prefer music that reminds you of exploring the Capital Wasteland or sneaking around Dunwall , vote to get Inon Zur on the list for the score of Fallout 3 or Daniel Licht for the music of Dishonored.

Hailing from Canada, Sarah is a trained jeweler, illustrator, graphic designer, editor, and writer who currently works as a freelance fiction editor and book cover designer. Some of her most popular Morrowind mods include Uvirith’s Legacy, Books of Vvardenfell, and recently The Tea Mod and Uvirith’s Legacy (released after the time of this interview) for Morrowind.

How did you get involved with modding?

My brother gave me a copy of Morrowind in 2006, and I later bought both expansions for it. At the time, I’d been making minor mods and maps for Civilization IV, but never got heavily into it. I played Morrowind for a week or two before delving into modding. I was disappointed with the first stronghold I got in the game, Rethan Manor, so it didn’t take long for me to jump into the Construction Set to try to improve it. My first mod was a mess, and so was the next–unpublishable–but while learning I discovered the modding community. I remember distinctly how Fliggerty made me the most welcome and helped answer my most complicated scripting questions. I’ve tried to pay it forward ever since.

Recently, via Twitter, we learned how Skyrim fan Caleb Gayle proposed to his fiancé, Dara, with a ring inscribed with Dragon language. We recently caught up with the soon-to-be-married couple, who have planned their wedding date for December 31st, 2013.

How did you pop the question?

Caleb: Well it was quite the challenge keeping the secret for so long. At first I was telling her that I owed my father money so week by week I saved a little. Then one day I let her know that we would be visiting my Uncle in Manhattan for about a week, as a mini vacation.

Once we were in Manhattan my uncle called and said lets go see the sites. I then asked dara “Would you like to see the Empire State Building?”, and of course she said, “YES!”

While at the top of the Empire state I started doing a vlog video for our site, 2ndOpinionPod.com, and asked Dara to get in the shot. My uncle knew all along what I was planning and once I had the chance I said “The trip so far has been amazing…..but it would be even better if….. (kneeled down on one knee)… Dara I want to spend the rest of my life with you will you marry me?” That’s when I realized there was about 50 people surrounding us smiling and clapping while she said “YES!”

Dara: I was already very excited to be in New York. All the extremely tall buildings and structures were just so mesmerizing. It was a lot to take in all at once. Then I was standing on top of the tallest building in New York when Caleb, being Caleb, was making a video once again, tugging on me to get in the shot. I wasn’t really sure what to do so I pulled a Vanna White trying to show off the building. That’s when I was given the biggest surprise in my life. Caleb plopped down on one knee crying like a baby and I’m thinking “HOLY CRAP!!” After I said yes and Caleb told me everybody knew and that he lied to me about giving his dad money, I impulsively punched him in the stomach.

Reddit can be a dangerous or inspiring place. Sometimes you turn up real treasures if you have the right timing. This was the case of us seeing Reddit user, Adras’s Morrowind mod. The project took has taken him seven years and he’s still working on it. Turns out Adras is James Hartley of Traverse City, Michigan and in his day-to-day he works as a Network Technician. We spoke with Adras about the work he did on his mod, Ravenhold Castle, and the work he’s still doing to complete it.

What’s it been like working on Ravenhold Castle?

More than anything, it has been a great learning experience. When I first started out making mods, I didn’t know the first thing about how video games were made or the amount of work that goes into them. It has really given me a great perspective and respect of the people who do it for a living. Modding is a fun and rewarding experience, but it is also a lot of work.

The years of working on Ravenhold Castle has really helped expand my creative thinking skills. While working on the mod, I combined items and room pieces from the existing game to make new interior designs and other structures never before seen in Morrowind. Rather than making new objects that needed to be imported, I opted to be creative with the design and keep the mod entirely dependency-free; meaning that when installing the mod, there will only be one file, rather than many. That helps keep the mod simplistic, yet detailed.

Over the years you’ve put a lot of effort into preserving mod projects for Morrowind, can you talk about that?

Morrowind was the first open-world RPG game I played extensively. Most of my gaming experience before Morrowind was First Person Shooters and console games. The world of Vvardenfell is just so incredibly immersive that, even after 10 years, I can still walk around and see beauty in things that I didn’t notice before. That’s not to say that Oblivion or Skyrim aren’t beautiful – they certainly are – but Morrowind has something special about it. I can walk around Vvardenfell looking at all these strange creatures walking past me and huge mushroom trees off in the distance, and I feel like I am right at home.

Ravenhold Castle wasn’t the first mod I’ve created, but it is the first one that I really put a lot of time and effort into. I have been working on it for over 7 years, and it has become more part of my life than just a simple side project. I’ve put countless hours into it, I’ve had input from friends and family on it, and it has developed and changed over the years as I have. I’ve spent a lot time playing Morrowind over the past 10+ years, so much that it will always have a special place inside me. Through this mod, I’ve had a chance to give something of my own back to the world of Tamriel.
Ravenhold Castle isn’t ready for release yet due to time constraints with work, though I am hoping to be able to get enough work done to release it soon. Originally I was planning on having a entire quest line, but at this point it would only be a housing/town mod.

Halloween is drawing near and we’ve been spotting some fun and creative uses of talent in celebration of the Fall holiday. With all of the vampires, werewolves, ghouls, and Boxmen we’ve had through our office we thought this could offer you guys the chance to show off your artistic skills. We’ve seen Jack-o-lanterns, illustrations, and costumes of all kinds over the years and would love to see more.

If you happen to be scaring children while dropping from trees as Corvo, or carving a pumpkin into the Pint Sized Slasher we want to see it and everyone else to see it as well! Submit your Halloween-themed pictures and pieces to [email protected] or any one of our social media pages and we’ll post our favorites.

Here’s some inspiration to get the creatives juices flowing!

Just in case you need some help with carving ideas, nothing says SURVIVAL HORROR like taking a knife…to a pumpkin! Here’s a template for our Evil Within logo if you want to make a jack-o-lantern like Jenny’s.

Dovahkiins are waiting for a home. They are immobilized by Styrofoam, unable to move they cannot explore as they once did through the vast lands of Skyrim. The Dragon Priest-masked Dragonborns have sat and watched their maskless brethren be adopted by loving homes, hoping….waiting….to be as fawned over as their helmeted kin. Today is that day.

For you may help Dragon Priest masked Dovahkiin feel the warmth of a home like he felt in Hearthfire. He can travel with excitement through a new world to get to your door! You can help Dragon Priest Mask Dovahkiin continue his adventures with you. Head on over to the storeto adopt today and make the Dragonborn Statue (Dragon Priest Mask Variant) a part of your home, and your heart.

When Fliggerty is not ruling over his Great House, he is working as a Software Engineer for the UK2 Group in Hyrum, Utah. He took time out of his schedule to give us the inside details on what its like reigning over theGreat House Fliggerty.

It’s been a long time since we last talked, what’s new for you?

It has been a long time, and a lot has changed. The biggest and most important part for me is that I’ve spent a lot of time and effort modding my family, and as a result it has doubled in size. We now have two gorgeous little girls (which, unfortunately, has seriously cut into my gaming/modding time.) Aside from that there is my career; during our last talk I was making garbage bags for a semi-living, but now I get to write code professionally. The great thing is that I got a job with the company that hosts Great House Fliggerty, and basically used my site and mods as my portfolio and resume. So if anyone ever tells you that modding is a waste of time, just point them towards me and I’ll set them straight. (Even my wife has finally conceded that point!)